1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a shoe, more particularly to a shoe which has a detachable gaiter and a concealed type fastening system to fasten the gaiter to an upper of the shoe.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known in the art to provide a shoe with a gaiter which can wrap around the ankle and leg of a user for keeping debris, mud, water or the like from entering the shoe and from staining portions of the clothes of the user above the shoe. U.S. Pat. No. 5,491,911 discloses a detachable gaiter with a fastening system which includes buttons and button holes respectively provided in the gaiter and the upper so as to fasten the gaiter to the upper. A fastening belt is provided additionally so as to keep the gaiter around the ankle and the leg of the wearer. The fastening system as such is not suitable to keep water or mud from entering the shoe due to the presence of the button holes. In addition, the belt which is more or less rigid may cause the user to feel uncomfortable.
A shoe suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,573 incorporates a gaiter with hook-and-loop fasteners (Velcro fasteners) to interengage two opposite overlapping ends of the gaiter after the gaiter is disposed around the ankle and leg of the wearer. The shoe further includes a pouch disposed at the collar of the upper thereof to receive the gaiter and a zipper to close the pouch. In this system, since the zipper is exposed from the shoe and the pouch, the zipper can get dirty with mud and/or sand, or can even be abraded by debris such as sticks and rocks when the shoe is used in hiking or hunting.
An object of this invention is to provide a shoe with a gaiter which is waterproof and which has a concealed type fastening system to fasten the gaiter to an upper of the shoe, thereby eliminating the aforesaid problems encountered with the prior art.
Accordingly, a shoe of the present invention comprises: an upper having a top open end, and a bottom end; a sole connected to the bottom end; and a gaiter including a top end, a bottom end, and two opposite lateral sides interconnecting the top and bottom ends. The gaiter further includes, adjacent to the lateral sides, fasteners to engage one another so as to place the gaiter in a closed position. A zipper has complementary first and second zipper straps, wherein the first zipper strap is attached to an inner surface of the gaiter between the lateral sides and between the top and bottom ends of the gaiter and is spaced from the bottom end of the gaiter. The second zipper strap is attached to the upper adjacent to the top end of the upper.